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Jason Cole
“If only we'd known what we actually stirred with our superposition chip. We thought we'd reached into some sort of perfect mathematical abstraction that promised as many cycles as we'd ever need for realistic VR. Instead, we'd pinged a network so primeval that it predated the solar system. A network crawling with hungry things eager to reach the orbits and atoms of our natural universe. “But there was still time for me to save Earth now, if I was fast enough. And if, let's face it, I didn't screw the pooch along the way… “I'd fought Jason to be the one to return. He'd been in a blind panic. So had I. The planetovores had breached the starting grid. Only one of us could print back to Earth. He hadn't understood all the implications. There'd been no time to explain. How could I have known what would happen? “I burst into the engineering building, chest heaving, mind screaming self-recriminations, and raced for the VR lab. “A man stood outside the lab entrance, a mug in one hand and a red metal toolbox dangling from the other. Michael Bradley was my friend and another survivor of my failed game studio. “Bradley squinted at me. I rubbed my temple, wondering how to explain myself. Bradley had been selected to monitor the simulation when the rest of us went under the goggles. Which, according to the wall clock, was less than thirty minutes ago. It seemed much longer… “‘Carter?’ Bradley said. ‘What're you doing out here?’ “‘Hey, Bradley,’ I replied. ‘Um, call of nature.’ “‘Mmm hmm,’ he grunted, nodding slightly. ‘You had too much coffee.’ He sipped from his own mug. “I nodded. ‘What about you?’ I asked. ‘Why aren't you in the lab?’ “I'd printed back at a location outside the VR chamber because I hadn't wanted anyone to witness my arrival. If I'd known Bradley hadn't been watching, I could've saved myself a lot of time. “‘Server sent up a couple of faults,’ Bradley said. ‘I had to replace some fuses, if you can believe it.’ He rattled his toolbox. ‘Electrical fluctuations, I guess. Lucky the power supply smoothed everything out.’ “‘I think the test environment couldn't handle all variables,’ I said, remembering the shuddering expanse that opened beyond our virtual starting grid, a vista strange beyond all reckoning. “Bradley snorted. ‘Shouldn't make any difference. Probably the idiots over in aerospace are using some unapproved CAD extension.’ “I shrugged as if unconcerned. ‘Sure,’ I said, wiping a drop of sweat from my neck. ‘You better finish with those fuses. I'll hook myself back in.’ Please, I thought, turn around and head back to the server. Don’t make me ''— “‘Naw. I'm done.’ “Shit. Shit, shit, ''shit! ‘Oh, good,’ I said, my voice faint. How was I going to deal with Bradley? How, really, was I going to deal with everyone? I hadn’t given the next part of my plan much thought. It was too horrible, going far beyond what I’d already done. Yet there I was. “I opened the door and gestured for Bradley to precede me. He walked through and set the toolbox on the shelf inside the entrance. I followed him in and, without thinking about what I might use it for, quietly lifted the toolbox. It was cold and heavy in my hands. Bradley didn't notice. “The Beatles lilted from the room speakers, from a soundtrack Bradley retained a maddening fondness for. ‘Oh, Girrrrrl…. Girrrl….’ No one plugged into the VR could hear it, thanks to sound-canceling headphones. “Five black leather chairs lined the far wall, each sprouting a garden of wires, LED status lights, oversize gloves, and blocky goggles. One seat held Jason. I let my gaze slide off him. The other four seats held Dr. Sanders, Melissa, Alice, and…me. “Bradley hummed along to the song as he checked his monitors. Then he froze. “‘Carter, what the fuck?’ He was staring at my original, still snugged into the rig. I swung, bringing the toolbox crashing down on Bradley's head. He crumpled without a word. “‘Oh, God,’ I whispered, then swallowed. My hands were trembling. I desperately attempted not to think about whether I'd just heard the sound of crunching bone. And not to think about what I had to do next. “I stepped past Bradley’s lolling form and approached Jason. He looked relaxed, as if asleep. Maybe I should reconsider. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe — “''Stop it'', I told myself. You have to be sure. You can cry about it later. So I emptied the toolbox on the floor at Jason’s feet. He didn't so much as quiver at the metallic racket. I rooted through the pile and finally selected a long screwdriver and a mallet. “I had to sever the connection between the flesh in front of me and the things that lived in the dark energy network that had absorbed Jason’s soul. Things had gone way too pear-shaped to simply remove his goggles and unplug him from the rig. Quantum entanglement meant that contamination had already occurred. I saw it happen. “Goggles hid his eyes, and I was glad. “‘Is there anybody going to listen to my story, all about the girl who came to stay?’ sang from the speakers. “I screamed and drove the fucking screwdriver into Jason’s head with the mallet. His body was already compromised, and his mind — perhaps even his spirit, if you believed in such things — was elsewhere. He'd made the transition and was still, in some sense, alive down in the substrate. Unless what I'd done to ensure that I was the one standing in the lab with the mallet and screwdriver, not him, had sealed everyone’s fate but mine.”Cordell, B. R. 2014. “Recursion.” In Tales from The Strange, 14–16. Monte Cook Games, LLC. The Betrayer The Strange “Other than Lotan, the Betrayer is the most feared creature in Ardeyn. As he should be — the Betrayer sees all of Ardeyn as a flawed construct that should be dissolved. He considers the people of Ardeyn to be mere shadows of computer code bereft of conscious spark. And, as a consequence, he doesn't believe that anything he does within his fortress is ‘evil’ so much as a means to an end. He's not a bad guy — just a guy who got screwed, or so he tells himself and his closest confidants (which are his translucent-skinned lieutenants). “The Betrayer became as he was when the consciousness of an Earth human named Jason Cole was thrust into the Incarnation of War, as Ardeyn was compiled into the Strange. The mental dissonance between being a twenty-six-year-old programmer from Earth and at the same time a thousands-of-years-old divine Incarnation of Ardeyn was too much. The story of War was one of resentment toward the Maker for the Maker’s acceptance of humans. That, combined with resentments Cole still carried from Earth, led to the Betrayal. “These days, the Betrayer splits his time between his various Foundries plus occasional trips into the Strange itself, where he seeks cyphers, new abilities, or perhaps even allies. Though he'd never say so aloud, the Betrayer’s goals have gone beyond merely taking Ardeyn; if he could, Cole would take the Earth, becoming a homegrown planetovore.”Cordell, B. R., and M. Cook. 2014. “The Setting.” In The Strange, 178-80. Monte Cook Games, LLC. Megeddon “Megeddon is a territory of the Borderlands completely under the control of the Betrayer. Indeed, the entire territory is one massive, city-sized black iron citadel where the Betrayer and all his homunculi reside. Megeddon’s symbol depicts a black circlet of spikes, which outsiders assume is a crown—a crown set in opposition to Hazurrium’s, and so they call it the Traitor’s Crown. “Megeddon is peopled almost entirely with copies of the Betrayer that he calls homunculi. Homunculi come in three grades: green (bestial ragers), reds (skilled in war, at a deficit in everything else) and a handful of clears (the Betrayer’s lieutenants, who come closest to being perfect copies). “Green homunculi ferocity and red homunculi skill-at-arms gives Megeddon a considerable advantage, even against nations that boast a much larger fighting force, such as the Queendom and Mandariel. Add to that the epic abilities of the Betrayer himself, and it's easy to see why Megeddon can keep enemies at bay.” Fortress of Megeddon “Despite its impressive size, the fortress houses only a few thousand creatures, nearly half of them homunculi. The fortress floor plan is like a half circle, with thick iron walls that curve out into the Strange, as if it were a segment of a much larger fortress that was lost somewhere in the dark energy network. Metal towers bristle upon the ramparts of the remaining segment, looking out over the blasted Borderlands. “Only a few entrances are visible on the side of Megeddon that faces Ardeyn: three massive war gates are large enough to allow for the emergence of a dragon or a troop formation that is one hundred homunculi wide. “The fortress contains parade and training grounds, storehouses stocked with mundane weapons, barracks, and other needful things for a military base. A large section of the fortress called the White Zone is set aside for visitors. “Megeddon also contains vast, empty areas of rooms, tunnels, tanks, dead gardens, and plazas, suggesting the fortress may have once been a city of ancient qephilim repurposed by the Betrayer for his base. “Another section of the fortress is out of bounds for all creatures except the homunculi. It contains locked treasuries where magic weapons, artifacts, cyphers, and trophies from earlier conflicts are kept safe. “The basements of Megeddon are given over to the Body Vats, where copies of the Betrayer are grown and matured. “On the levels above the Body Vats are the Foundries, some of which are tasked with creating weapons and armor to outfit homunculi, but others have more esoteric purposes. These Foundries are where the Betrayer’s translucent-skinned lieutenants oversee reds in various experiments designed to boost the Betrayer’s power back to what it was when he was War (or better yet, surpass that level of power). The Foundries include the Pit Foundry, which attempts to siphon energy from the Strange; the Soul Foundry, where soul fragments from slaves are scraped off for study; the Artifact Foundry, where artifacts from both Ardeyn and the Strange are studied and catalogued; the Contact Foundry, where new and better ways to connect to Earth and other recursions are explored; and finally the Xenobiology Foundry, where kray are kept on ice against a future need by the Betrayer.” September Project The Strange “A standard Internet search describes the September Project as a research group developing the next generation of quantum computers. A lot of glitzy web marketing makes a convincing case for the benefits such machines would provide. “The group’s desire to create a true quantum computer is real — not because they want to solve anyone’s problems, but because the group’s secret founder — a man named Jason Cole (known as the Betrayer in Ardeyn) — wants to claim both Ardeyn and Earth for himself. The ultimate narcissist, Cole has attained planetovore-style aspirations. Only a few elite September Project agents know Cole’s ultimate goals, and even they believe that they'll be spared when Cole finally succeeds. “The September Project has a research facility in Palo Alto, California, a city known for its computer talent. Thanks to the efforts of the Estate (efforts that consist of bribes, hiring away talent, destruction of prototypes, arson, and so on), the research never really got off the ground, and the September Project eventually earned the reputation as something of a joke in the computer industry. “But lately, the Estate’s agents at the Palo Alto research facility have been found dead (one having suffered a stroke, the other a heart attack) or missing. The September Project has developed a new security strategy. Every seven days, they bring in a telepath from a recursion called Atom Nocturne that operates under the law of Psionics. The telepath is Soma Kitsune. “Soma stays just long enough to clear out any new secret agents or other security breaches, then she is quickly shuttled back to her world before her Talent gives out completely. Soma contracts blinding headaches the moment she enters Earth as its alternative law begins to digest her Talent, but a heavy dose of painkillers allows her to operate for up to two days. If Soma remains on Earth for more than a few days, the strain would likely kill her. Soma believes that she's doing good, and that the secret agents she is rooting out are working for a dubious organization; she's convinced that the September Project are the ‘good guys.’”Cordell, B. R., and M. Cook. 2014. “The Setting.” In The Strange, 155-56. Monte Cook Games, LLC. Eschatology Code “Under the guise of improving soldier performance, the September Project utilized next-generation quantum computing hardware to create the War Code program. At its heart, the project is an optical delivery system that flashes code directly to anyone wearing specially fabricated war glasses. This War Code gives the recipients abilities normally reserved for quickened individuals (like PCs). The September Project began shopping the War Code program around to various military contractors as soon as the program was complete. “The September Project is more than a cutting-edge military weapons supplier. And the War Code is far more than just the product of advanced computing. The September Project is actually an Earth-based front for the Betrayer, once the Incarnation of War in the recursion of Ardeyn. The code being downloaded into recipients’ brains is actually a portion of the Betrayer’s soul, which resonates between Ardeyn and Earth thanks to a program running on a quantum computer. While a wearer of war glasses gains amazing abilities, each wearer also widens a conduit between Earth and Ardeyn. In time, this conduit could allow the Betrayer to manifest on Earth with the abilities of an entity from a recursion operating under the law of Magic. That would be bad. Very bad. “Unable to locate buyers in the military-industrial complex, the September Project changed tactics. It delivered the quantum computer and war glasses to Father Foss, a church leader in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. When the All Souls Church of Deliverance began publicly counting down to the End of Days, the Estate and the Office of Strategic Recursion (OSR) both sent operatives to find out if the miracles reported on the local news had anything to do with the Strange.”Cordell, B. R. 2014. “Introduction.” In Eschatology Code, 3. Monte Cook Games, LLC. Where it began (excerpt from Myth of the Maker) “‘No pizza for you?’ Jason asked Alice. “Alice shook her head and went back to fiddling. “Neither she nor Sanders liked pizza. That didn't stop Jason from buying it whenever it was his turn to get food for the group. Jason was a lot of things, many of them good, but sometimes he came off as a bit of a jerk. Especially when it came to pizza. He couldn't understand how anyone could say no to pepperoni. “Peter Sanders, the sixth member of the team and our fearless leader, appeared in the doorway, briefcase in hand and white hair managing to look messy despite its shortness. When he saw the pizza boxes, the corners of his mouth turned down a tiny bit. Most people wouldn't notice, but I've known Sanders for many years. “‘Jason,’ I muttered, ‘next time you draw lunch duty, just tell me and I’ll get food for everyone.’ “‘Suits me,’ he said without the least trace of shame. ‘You can be the hero next time and get sushi.’ “Yeah, sometimes Jason could really work your last nerve. “On the other hand, he'd been the one who'd helped me put together the game studio, then stood by longest when everything went south. He was loyal, just not especially empathetic. “Sanders set his briefcase aside and loosened his tie. ‘I got your message,’ he said to Mel. ‘Are we still a go?’ “Mel gave him the thumbs up. ‘We're ready to rock and roll, Peter.’ “He nodded, and then looked at the floor without meeting anyone’s eyes directly. We didn't take it personally. “Only someone as brilliant as Sanders could've written his quantum recursion paper. I mean, I'm pretty smart, don't get me wrong. Everyone says so. But next to Sanders, I'm like a drooling child. Already, single-POV immersions in the starting grid were startling in their clarity and response time. To create an artificial experience for five people at once would require a hundred times the processing power. The superposition chip promised to give us that. All because of him. “When the pizza was gone and everyone who had to go returned from the toilet, we took our places in the VR rigs. It took a few minutes to buckle in and put on the equipment. Bradley started music playing over the lab speakers, which had become something of a tradition when we tested. This time, the Beatles serenaded us about strawberry fields and how nothing was real. “‘Ready?’ said Sanders when the buckling and muttering subsided. His voice was muffled. “Everyone but Bradley was strapped in. I glanced around, as far as I could in the rig’s embrace. The belt around my waist pulled a little too tight, so I loosened it with my gloved hand. The rig included a seat-belt added for safety, and a foot plate for haptic transfer. Jason, Sanders, and Alice had their goggles down. Mel and I were the only remaining hold-outs. I gave her a wink. ‘Wouldn't you prefer a nice game of chess?’ I asked, modulating my voice to sound artificial, like a computer’s. “Mel laughed. ‘You're such a nerd.’ “‘That's why you love me, Mel.’ “‘You wish.’ “‘What?’ said Jason, his voice smothered by his rig. ‘Are you two-timing me, Carter? You told me that I was the one you dreamed about at night!’ The forced lightness in his voice was hardly noticeable. He was dealing with his issue with enclosed spaces pretty well this time. “‘You're both delusional,’ Mel said. ‘No one loves Carter more than Carter. Everyone knows that!’ “We all laughed, because it was probably true. Except for the times when imposter syndrome intruded and made me wonder what the hell I was doing. “‘Hey,’ interrupted Bradley from behind the monitors, ‘Give it a break. Time for hardware check.’ “‘Mr. Bradley is correct,’ said Sanders. ‘I've got a seminar in three hours.’ “Alice said, her voice similarly muted, ‘You guys can clown around in the VR. Unless we crash the starting grid again.’ “‘Sorry, Alice,’ I said. ‘I know you can't wait to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.’ “Her goggles prevented me from seeing her eyes roll at the old joke, but Mel laughed, which was almost as good. “Bradley appeared in my field of view and pantomimed lowering goggles. ‘C'mon, Carter. Stop delaying. If this doesn't work, it's not the end of the world. We'll try something else.’ “He knew me too well. If this didn't work, we'd have little to show the science committee when it came time to ask for a grant renewal to continue developing the superposition chip. My ego couldn't take another failure. “Pulling the box-shaped device down over my eyes wasn't easy because I was already wearing the haptic gloves. The hardware was partly scavenged from early-adopter VR sets that had recently hit the market, and partly of Alice’s design. We weren't testing gloves and goggles today, though; we wanted to see how the recursive VR chip handled more than a single point of view simultaneously. What seemed unbelievably realistic to just one person might prove a grainy, jerky, nausea-inducing obviously artificial environment when two, three, or as we'd decided to test today, five sightseers entered the same virtual starting grid. “The goggles showed an expanse of blank LED gray, bright, but not enough to blind me. When the simulation went live, the goggles would display the same scene to each of my eyes, slightly offset to give the illusion of depth. The superposition chip’s ability to ‘find’ extra processing power never failed to impress. What would've otherwise been a pixelated tutorial region swiped from a popular resource mining game would instead be rendered with life-like clarity. Trees, grass, water, and the sky above would look real. “Even the blocky crafting table would be sleek and elegant, because I'd tweaked the code to turn the blank slab into a terminal resembling the navigation console from the second Star Trek movie. It granted control over the simulation from ‘inside’ the starting grid. “‘Begin check,’ Sanders said. We verbally ran through several tests to make sure all the equipment was working. Haptic gloves and boots, the hydraulic lifts in the chairs, the audio, and the all-important goggles. After dealing with a tiny glitch with Mel’s headphones, Bradley announced it was time. “‘Ready!’ I said, amidst a hail of assents from the others. “Boiling fog flooded my field of view. It unaccountably smelled like the sea. “‘What the hell?’ I muttered. Damn it. My goggles were borked. I should've been seeing the starting grid, the VR environment we'd programmed. Not all this… static. “Through the mist, indistinct forms lumbered. I stepped forward – “And fell into an abyss with sides as sheer as scissor blades. A phantom weight jerked me down. An equation cut a labyrinthine pattern across my skin, drawing blood. Before I could recognize it or cry out, it transformed, becoming an infinite series, spiraling away from me like a burned-out galaxy. Beneath the spirals, the bottom of the abyss resolved as the surface of a frozen ocean instants before I smashed through its crystalline face. Ice water embraced me, swallowing my screams in a zero-degree sea, holding me in a cocoon of cold – “And stepped into the starting grid, right next to the terminal. “Peter Sanders appeared. Then Jason, Mel, and finally Alice. “Alice scrubbed at her eyes. Sanders toppled, hit his head on the edge of the terminal as he went down, and began to twitch. Jason yelled, ‘Bradley, shut the fucking simulation down! Something's wrong!’ “Mel only pointed. “Mind still frozen, I looked in the direction she indicated, past the faux-brick wall that enclosed the starting grid. “Beyond it was Chaos.”Cordell, B. R. 2017. “Recursion.” In Myth of the Maker, 11–14. Monte Cook Games, LLC. External links * [http://knifesedgeblogs.blogspot.com/p/myth-of-maker-excerpt.html entirety of Myth of the Maker - Chapter 1 - excerpt] at Knifesedge Blogs References Category:Χ-BV4635 Category:Χ-PN57.J37